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[bells tolling] [bells tolling] >> each week, american artifacts

visits museums and historic places. you're looking at peterson house here in washington, d.c. where president abraham lincoln passed away in april of 1865. up next, the boarding house across the street from ford's theatre where abraham lincoln was shot 150 years ago. >> this is an interesting house that has a great history even before abraham lincoln was assassinated. it was built by a german immigrant to america, william peterson, and he used the house as a boarding house. this is a relic of 19th century civil war boardinghouse culture. once upon a time, everybody lived in boarding houses senators and even vice president. this house is an important part of and development -- antebellum and the civil war history.

i have been coming here for years, making pilgrimages. i started coming here in 1986 when i joined to the reagan administration and i have been coming here for years. and i am very excited that there is going to be a big commemoration for abraham lincoln because in past years i have been alone. no one comes to honor lincoln. i might find one or two people when i sit on the steps of the peterson house and contemplate what happened. the parks service almost the rest of me sitting on the steps because the guard accused me of being a homeless loiterer, and i tried to convince them that i had written books and set on the council. the police questioned me and

said, how do i know that you are not a homeless man who will damage the house? one of the others came to his senses and said enjoy your evening. i have had quite a time coming to his house which has been abandoned for the public for a long time with this year will be different. lincoln arrived at the theater at 8:00 p.m. nobody at the peterson has noticed lincoln arrived. people were going to the bars and taverns to celebrate the victory of the war. it was a quiet night on the street. the play was underway so the carriage pulled up and stopped in front of the big gaslamp and lincoln went inside. and then around 10:00, 10:15 p.m., the doors to ford's theater opened.

people came out screaming. at first some people thought the theater was on fire. then they heard the shots. the president was shot. burn the theater. find the assassin. that got the attention of the members of the boarding house. the first person was george francis who lived on the first floor. he came out and walked into the street and he could only get half way across and people were screaming that the president was dead. he walked right up to the president's body as it was being taken across the street. another border, henry, heard the noise, too. he saw the commotion, and he heard the shouts that lincoln had been shot. he could not get to ford's theater. so many people were outside in the street. so he retreated, came back to the house, and went up the stairs. he stood of the top of the staircase. he was up there watching as the soldiers pounded on the door of the house next door. they could not get in. he saw there was lincoln in the middle of the street being

carried by soldiers and they did not know where to take the president. so he went inside, got a candle, stood at the top of the staircase, and shouted, bring him in here. the doctor heard that and shouted to the officers and soldiers, take the president to that house. so they crossed the street and came up the stairs. and so, as lincoln was being carried up the staircase, he was still alive, unconscious. and the sight of abraham lincoln here at the top of the staircase was the last time the american people saw him alive. the doctor came in this door. and he told saffron, take us to your best room. now, the hallway is narrow. it was already filled with the lincoln entourage, the doctors the soldiers. there was a narrow staircase on the right. he knew the best room was the

front parlor, occupied by george, so he reached for the door here. it was locked. he went down to the second door here. this door was locked. francis was inside frantically getting dressed. she had seen the president being brought to the house through the front windows, so she was already dressed for bed, so she wanted to put on clothes. she did not unlock this door either. all that was left was this little room at the back of the hallway, which was occupied by a civil war soldier, but he was out for the evening. so, they led them to the back room. you can see how narrow the hallway is. there is barely enough room for soldiers to stand on each side of lincoln and carried him down the hallway. they took him into this room and laid him on a spindle bed in the corner.

they have no choice but to larry abraham lincoln diagonally. -- lay abraham lincoln diagonally. the doctor ordered people out. he needed to examine lincoln. he knew that he had been shot in the head but he did not know if he had other wounds. they stripped him naked and examined him on the bed. they thought he might have been stabbed. almost everybody in the theater had seen john wilkes with the dagger. but lincoln was unwonted except for the shot of a single bullet behind the left ear. mary lincoln and her entourage came to the front door of the peterson house and went to the

front parlor. we will go that way and see what mary lincoln did. when lincoln was first brought into this house he had no bodyguard. the army was not here yet. and so strangers came into the house and observed lincoln and lingered in the hallways. it was not until 15 or 20 minutes later that lincoln was under the protection of the army. the soldiers and officers cleared everyone out that was not known to them. mary lincoln was frantic by then. she came through the house screaming "where is my husband? why didn't he shoot me?" mary lincoln entered this parlor and sat on a horse hair so fa. mary lincoln would spend much of the night of april 14 and the

early morning hours of april 15 here. she did not spend the night at her husband's side, she was with close friends. she could not stand to see her husband wounded and unconscious so much overtime was here. writing, -- of her time was here. crying, sobbing. mary lincoln saw harris' dress covered in blood and she began screaming. it was the blood of major rathbone. much of his blood was on his fiancee's dress. mary lincoln was wrong. major rathbone came here and he leaned against the wall in the hallway and assume he collapsed and fainted. -- and soon he collapsed and fainted.

this is where mary lincoln spent much of the night. secretary of war stanton and secretary wells arrived shortly after lincoln was taken here. they had been at the home of secretary of state stewart. i had heard that he had been stabbed to death. he survived the -- they had heard that he had been stabbed to death. he survived the wounds. heard that lincoln was shot show they rushed over here that -- so they rushed over here. the carriage could not push through the crowd. the two most powerful members of the cabinet had to disembark from the carriage and pushed their way through. stanton came through this room and into the back parlor here which was the bedroom. it was here on a table in the

center of this room that the secretary of war began the manhunt for john wilkes booth. witnesses from fort's theater were brought here. stanton questions. the union army soldier who knew shorthand sat at this table was stanton and took the first testimony of witnesses who saw john wilkes booth martyr of the president. -- murder the president. stanton spent the night here organizing the manhunt for john wilkes booth. he sent messengers to the telegraph office and from that office messages were brought back here. this room became the command post for the army of the united states under the secretary of war while lincoln was dying in the back room. stenson was one of lincoln's favorites, he had an iran will.

lincoln called him his mars, his god of war. even though they did not get along well before the war, lincoln knew that he was his right hand. stanton was the rocky shore on which the rebellion broke. he was barking commands, sending orders to hunt for john wilkes booth on trains. orders went out everywhere. catch the assassin, find him. the manhunt which took 12 days began here before lincoln even died. once word got out that lincoln was here this became the magnetic center of attraction for people in washington. more than 100 people make pilgrimages during the night.

some came because they wanted to help. they knew that stanton would need them. some were friends of murray lincoln. others were journalists that were not allowed to enter the house. thousands of people gathered in front of the house. some try to peek through the windows or hoist others up so they could look and but the blinds were closed. rugby night with regularity officials visitors came to the front door of the peterson house and were admitted to see the dining president. -- throughout the night with regularity official visitors came to the front door of the peterson house and were admitted to see the dying president. some came so that they could tell their grandchildren decades later, i was there the night that lincoln died. more people were here than needed to be here. it was certainly appropriate that the members of the cabinet for here but there were too many people in this little house. mary lincoln would sometimes

come out the front door of the parlor and venture to the back. enter female friends escorted her down this hallway. -- and her female friends escorted her down the hallway. the bed had been pulled away from the wall so the doctors who treat lincoln and observe him. several times during the night mary lincoln sat on the chair right here. she really could not control herself. at one point when it sounded like lincoln was gasping and about to die she let out a terrific shriek that so unnerved secretary of war sta nton that he said to take her from the room. she did not have a lot of fans in washington but it was not right to creature that way in the presence of her dying husband -- treat her in that way in the presence of her dying husband.

she was not present when the president died. she was sitting in the front room. lincoln lingered throughout the night. many men would have died within minutes of being shot through the head the way he was, but he rally. daylight came at around 6:00 in the morning secretary of state decided to go for a walk. he decided that some high official should be at lincoln sign throughout the night and the morning hours. he left it to secretary of war stanton to question witnesses, to begin the investigation to see if other cabinet members have been marked for death. he was there that night more as a mortar and witness to lincoln rather than a person who was active in the investigation and the activities at night. he found it hot and oppressive in humans that morning.

he walked outside, a light rain had begun, and he was astonished to find several thousand people keeping vigil in the street outside. many were black, either freed men who were never slaves, or slaves, men and women, gathered in silent vigil. and wells was touched by that. at that point there was no shouting, no screaming, hushed crowd outside, and the as what was to happen, and he couldn't answer that. so he came back, and by 6:30 in the morning, it was obvious that lincoln was not going to last much longer. breathing became labored and less frequent. so the doctors finished pocket watches out of their suit coats because they wanted to mark the moment when lincoln died. they came in 7:22 in the morning, that was when lincoln's

heart made its last beat. the doctors recorded the time and one of them said he is dead he is gone. witnesses say no one spoke for a few minutes, and then stanton said to the minister, dr., will you speak? he said a prayer for lincoln and then edwin stanton pronounced words that were immortal, and remembered wrong for the last 150 years. the secretary of war stood in this room looked at abraham lincoln's body and said, now he belongs to the angels. we remembered today as, now he belongs to the ages, but extensive research reveals that the stenographer's only lead pencil broke when he was writing them what was said in this room, but he remembered that stanton's that angels.

plus it was -- he would not have said something as profound as now he belongs to the ages. i have no doubt that in this room, stanton said, now he belongs to the angels. people filtered out of the room 151. stanton remained here alone with the president. at that point, he took a small scissors or razors -- razor and approach lincoln's body and cut off a lock of his hair. not for himself, but for mary jane wells this wife of the secretary of the navy, one of mary lincoln's few close friends in washington. he sealed it in an envelope, wrote it on an envelope and later mrs. wells framed a lock of hair with drive lowers that were on his coffin at the white house funeral.

then it was time to bring lincoln home to the white house. so the tech -- secretary of war sent for what was needed to convey the body of a dead president home to the white house. soldiers were sent and they returned from the military shop a few blocks away carrying a rectangular, plain pine box. when those soldiers rounded the corner and came up 10th street with that box, the crowd moaned, because they knew intellectually that the president had died. they saw the cabinet members leaving. but the sight of that coffin was the real representation of their hopes that lincoln lived. the coffin was taken down the hallway and laid on the right here. before lincoln's body was placed in the coffin, soldiers took a

35 star flag and wrapped lincoln's naked body in the colors of the union. the stars would have been wrapped over lincoln's face if they follow tradition. lincoln had ordered that the lack of a full complement of stars through the union to signify that the union was permanent. he would not have my being placed in that rough pine box. -- you would not have minded. the soldiers took a screwdriver and screwed the lid on that box. there was no sound. you could literally hear the squeaking sound of the screws tightening and the lid eating placed on it. the president was carried out this room through that hole through the front door and down the staircase. where a simple carriage awaited him and a military escort was there.

it was not fancy. there is no band, there were no national colors, regimental flags. the officers were all there -- all bareheaded and the escorted lincoln home to the white house. that's not the end of the story of this house, the peterson house. once all the government officials had left, once a president's body was gone and stent left, the house was open. no one was here. anyone could come into this house, and anyone who lived in this house could do whatever they wanted in this room. william peterson was furious that muddy boot tracks had soiled the carpet. when he came into the room and saw bloody pillows bloody sheets bloody towels and handkerchiefs, he got so angry he opened one of these windows and threw a lot of the material out the window into the yard. two brothers who lived in the house, one was a cameraman

photographer, and the other was a painter. they decided they would bring up a bulky camera and photograph the deathbed. it still had many bloody sheets on it, bloody pillows, a coverlet was on the back. they pushed the bed back in the corner to get a better photograph. they set up a camera at that into the room and point to the lens toward the bed and toward this hallway. and they open the front door so the morning light stream down this hallway, and they took one or two exposures of abraham lincoln's death. which were lost from us 100 years. i consider that photograph to be the most vivid and shocking and sad historical photograph in american history. no one knows why they did it. they never try to commercialize it. they didn't try to make multiple copies, sell them commercially, but it's an incredible and touching really can of them may

him happened in this room that night. one interesting thing, even though photograph was taken in this room shortly after lincoln's body was taken out for some reason, we haven't discovered any. photographs from 1865 taken of the peterson house after the assassination. matthew brady went inside ford's theater into the number of photographs. people took photographs of the stable where booth kept his horses. they photographed other places associated with the assassination, but for some reason photographers did not set up their cameras in front of the peterson house and take photos after lincoln died. it's a bit of a historical mystery. i'd look for decades to find photographs taken of the peterson house shortly after lincoln died, but haven't found any and no when know of has found any. just one of the lingering mysteries of the assassination. private william clark came back the next day, the soldier who lived in this room.

it was out all night celebrating the union did. that night, he slept in the very bed in which abraham lincoln died. he wrote a letter to relative saying i'm sleeping in the bed where the president died, the same coverlet that covered his body, now covers me. strangers, and offer money to come and view the room. if you don't watch them, they try to steal things. they try to steal little bits of cloth, the sheets, still something from the room. souvenir hunters were trying to raid the room within hours of the president's death. the coverlet is long gone, stolen at the illinois state fair at the turn-of-the-century. some of the pillowcases and pillows survive and are now in the collection of the park service at ford's theater. the sheets were all divided up into little swatches. all over the country in museums and private collections one can find little swatches of the sheets that were on lincoln's bed, many of them stained with

his life. this room looks berryman's like it did the night abraham lincoln was brought here and died the next morning. a number artists came to this room and sketched it and described it. the bad, of course, is no longer here. that is part of a sad story about the peterson family. in 1871, william peterson was found unconscious on the grounds of the smithsonian institution the old castle. he had poisoned himself with loud him. the police revived him and he confessed he had been taking log on for several years, and he died. william peterson's body was laid

out. his diet -- his wife died four months later, and her body was brought to this house, and she also was laid out in this house. so only six years after abraham lincoln died in this house, both petersons were dead. both relate out of this very house. interesting footnote, and auction company was brought in to sell the contents. once again, strangers gathered outside, came into the house and the two most expensive things at the auction where the sofa in the front room where mary lincoln had spent much of the night. that went from $15. and the bed on which abraham lincoln died sold for $80, which was eight or 10 times what it should have cost if it was simply a bed. so